There has long been a need for an apparatus to cooperate with a bottle washing machine having a plurality of washing tanks, so that at the end of a washing cycle, the mixture of caustic soda and labels removed from the bottles may be passed through a label accumulator and caustic separator so as to remove all of the labels from the mixture and return the caustic soda substantially unaltered to the washing machine tank again.
An object of the present invention therefore is to provide such an apparatus which can take the tanks of the bottle washing machine one at a time and pass the contents through the label accumulator and caustic separator of this invention and then return the caustic soda back to the washing machine tank.
Another object of the present invention is to provide such an apparatus including a housing having a reservoir in the upper part of the housing into which may be pumped a mixture of caustic soda and loose paper pieces of the labels with the reservoir having a perforated bottom through which the caustic soda may be drained so that the pieces of paper are finally collected in the reservoir and later passed downwardly through intermittingly rotating drums to an elongated helical screw conveyor which delivers the pieces of paper through a paper chopper to a point outside of the housing. The caustic soda may be then transferred by pump from the lower part of the housing back to the washing machine tank.
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the accompanying drawings and description and the essential features thereof will be set forth in the appended claims.